How Often Do You Feed Koi Fry?

When your koi fry hatch from the eggs, they will immediately attach themselves to any surface and continue to feed on their yolk sac until it is consumed. Then, the fry will rise to the surface to gulp some air and get their swim bladders working. After that, the fry will swim around in search for food.

Some experts do not advise giving your koi fry dry or artificial food for at least 6 to 8 weeks as it (artificial food) can damage the newly developed gills and will likely pollute the pond water. What they also want to avoid is the buildup of ammonia or nitrite that can quickly kill the fry. So how often do you feed koi fry? Experts recommend providing the fry with an ample supply of live, natural food like daphnia and infusoria to ensure their survival and fast growth. To produce daphnia and infusoria, you need to prepare your growing on pond a month before spawning by seeding it with chicken manure or use leaf mould if you are afraid that the manure might contain salmonella.

Still, there are keepers who feed the koi fry with boiled egg yolk during the first few days in order to increase the size of the stomach. You can also give koi fry newly hatched brine shrimp after a week. Then, you may start them on a mash diet – the fine powder ground from high protein koi food. Do give your fry some spirulina and pure wheat germ too. Feed the fry small amounts but often, about four to five times a day during the first three months. As the fry start to grow, you can feed them less often, about three times a day until you can introduce them to a regular diet of koi food, beginning with smaller pellets and gradually increasing the size of pellets until they can also eat what the adults eat.